Rescuers pulled bodies from the charred wreckage of the plane, operated by Bangladeshi airline US-Bangla, after a raging fire was put out.

The airline has blamed air traffic control, but the airport says the plane approached from the wrong direction. Flight BS211 veered off the runway while landing on Monday afternoon. The exact cause of the crash remains unclear and Nepalese Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli promised an immediate investigation.

However, a recording of the conversation between the pilot and air traffic control minutes before the plane crashed suggests some misunderstanding over which end of the sole runway the plane was cleared to land on.

Moments before the plane crash-landed, an air traffic controller is heard in the recording obtained by the BBC from air traffic monitor LiveATC telling the pilot: "I say again, turn!"

Twenty-two people are being treated in hospital for injuries, police spokesperson Manoj Neupane told the BBC's Nepali service.

The plane, which was flying from the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, was a Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 turboprop and was 17 years old.